I loved this book! Erin writes with pop culture brain and that is totally my thing! I love the idea of a romance writer heroine who has never been in love and thought the social media aspects of the book were handled super well. Adored and can't wait for Erin's next book!

This was a fun ARC that was actually published on November 14! I honestly didn’t realize was a celebrity romance when I started it, but it was less celebrity than some others so I preferred that. Dash is Sophie’s teenage crush, and also her best friend’s brother. The tension between them is palpable from early on, and it made for a few good spicy scenes throughout the book. Some of the writing in it was a little cringey for me, and I felt like the conflicts were a bit overdone towards the end. Overall the sexual tension is really what kept this interesting and had me not wanting to put it down, even if it wasn’t the best plot-wise.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for this arc!

This was a fun plot idea! I do like the premise and I think it had a lot of promise. However, I'm not sure it was my cup of tea. I feel like there was a lot of pop culture references that just were not my jam, and I wanted more tension built up in the romance between the characters.

4/5 Stars

I really enjoyed this one. A romance author that's never been in love and an actor that just wants to craft. There's a great mix of serious concerns and issues but also some really cute and fun parts. Both characters are enjoyable and don't have a ton of annoying qualities.

Overall, I enjoyed the premise and think it was an interesting idea -- the writer with writer's block trying to find out why she hasn't been in love and the best friend's brother as the love interest - who also happens to be famous.

I did have some challenges getting invested in their relationship and seeing them as a couple. I think went from him being standoffish/uninterested to them suddenly making out a little quickly and it needed some build up and shifting of the relationship more to help get invested.

Again, overall, a fun idea and i think fun characters.

What happens when a romance writer, who has never been in love, has writers block? Well she visits all of her ex’s, makes TikTok’s, and tried to write of course. All with the help of her famous next door neighbor, who was her childhood crush, who has a lot of family drama, and who is battling to stay sober.

Yeah, this book has a lot going on and honestly it handled most of the story lines well. The two main characters are complex and interesting. Their journey from the start and end of the book felt natural even with all the plot points.

4 stars for good characters and a good story.

I enjoyed some of the multimedia aspects included like e-mails and social media comments, but overall I was bored and the transitions to spicy scenes weren’t smooth. I’m totally fine with spice when there’s build up and it makes sense, but by chapter 2 there was some graphic imagery that came out of nowhere and was off putting for me. I know many of my book club members enjoyed this one so I’d specifically recommend this for people would enjoy the following:

▫️pansexual & sobriety rep
▫️dual POV
▫️another Exs & Os storyline
▫️lots of spice
▫️only one bed
▫️a pottery scene
▫️standing up to others who have wronged you

This book has absolutely delicious spice and a lovely romance. There are real issues discussed with care. Everything about it should make it one of my favorite books, but something about the writing didn't click with me all of the way. I would be willing to give this author another shot, because I really liked the romance aspects of this book but I didn't bond to the characters like I wanted. Overall, a very middle of the road book for me.

I thought I would enjoy this book more than I did. The writing was not bad, and there were definitely some nice moments. However, I struggled to connect with the main characters in the beginning, although as we get into the second half of the book there is more character development. I also didn’t feel the connection between the main characters and side characters. We are told that Poppy is Sophie’s best friend, and that Sophie is close with her sister, but those relationships aren’t really shown.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc.

I enjoyed the first book but liked this one even more! Great representation of several issues and I love books about books/writing. 4 stars!

in Plot Twist we have a romance writer with writers block using TikTok to stay relevant and her landlord/brother of her best friend who is a member of Hollywood royalty taking a break to protect his sobriety. And during this break, he is hiding behind an anonymous TikTok account about his craft work. This was a fun romcom with a much heavier theme of alcoholism and familial pressures. The chemistry was there (if not too much!!) and the romance was sweet. It was formulaic but I enjoyed that the characters were flawed and were undergoing real life issues, not issues that were just solved in 15 pages. Overall, just a fun book.

This book was so much more than I was expecting. Romance, humor, friendship and family, but it also tackled some major life issues with grace. Sophie is a romance writer whose never been in love. So she puts herself out there trying to figure out what went wrong. Dash is focusing hard on staying sober amidst his family's desire for him to get back to acting. He's got a hobby that's just for him and he's pretty happy.

After a drunken night and an unfortunate viral tiktok video, Dash and Sophie end up spending more time together and getting to know one another. Sophie helps Dash with a speech and Dash helps Sophie with the info she gains from her exes. They slowly realize that they both want more but it's complicated. Dash is her best friend Poppy's brother. And her neighbor. It was so unbelievable sweet to watch them take care of each other.

Alcohol addiction is a hard, serious issue, and I felt like it was really well done in that it felt real and honest, and the struggle wasn't sugar coated. It's messy and uncertain. But so is real life, and that's one of the things I loved the most about this book.

I thought this was an okay romance.

What I liked:
- I thought the author did a great job of showing the struggles of alcoholism and how it impacts the people around them
- I loved the idea of Sophie meeting with her exes (no matter what cringe it might be) and figuring out she may be the problem as well. I did think she evolved throughout the book and became a better version of herself.
- I did enjoy the family drama as well as the stalking situation.
What I didn't like
- The pacing of the romance is what impacted my feelings toward the book. I felt like things were rushed in the way. It went from them barely speaking to each other to friends with benefits to BAM I'm in love. But I just couldn't connect.
- Poppy and Nina were annoying. I guess they were your stereotypical Californian.

Finally, I thought the writing was good.

What to expect:
- Best Friend Brother
- Friend with benefits
- Alcoholism
- One bed

Thank you so much Netgalley and Harlequin Trading Publishing for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I always love romance books with bi/pan characters, even if they end up in a hetero relationships. I loved that in Sophie's exploration of exes, they were so varied. It felt well thought out as opposed to exes that fit the same model.

The frank discussions of addiction recovery was also a nice addition to the depth of the characters. The chemistry between Dash and Sophie was palpable, but I do wish the steamy scenes were longer and more thorough, they felt rushed.

What a compulsive, cute read! I absolutely loved Sophie & Dash's relationship and their development over the course of the novel; the combination between sexy and sweet was great. Both Sophie and Dash had their own personal issues to deal with outside of their romance - trust issues and alcoholism, respectively - that were handled delicately and thoroughly, but they never overpowered the main romantic plot line. As much as I enjoy celebrity romance novels, they are sometimes a hit and miss with me. Plot Twist by Erin La Sala is a huge hit.

I enjoyed the author's debut last year, so I was surprised that I ended up liking Plot Twist even more!

This one follows Sophie Lyons who is a romance author with writer's block. When a video of her drunkenly admitting that she's never been in love, she decides to meet some of her exes to see what went wrong in their relationships and discover why she never fell in love. And perhaps this might help her overcome her writer's block too.
Her best friend's brother Dash Montrose - a former indie movie star, is inadvertently roped into helping her as he gives her tips on how to navigate social media and TikTok. Dash's family members are famous actors, but he isn't too interested in continuing down this road. He's been lying low while trying to maintain his sobriety and working on his crafting(pottery) hobby. But this changes as Sophie and Dash grow closer but neither of them seems to be ready for a relationship...

Not only did this one have a cute and fun plot but I ended up loving the flawed but realistic characters too! Sophie's character development was my favorite as she ends up realizing so much more about herself - and her sister and her bff were very honest with her when she needed a reality check while she was being avoidant. It was hard not to fall for Dash too! I felt so sorry for him and his struggles. There were a few twists that surprised both me and Dash but it was handled in a good way! My favorite was Dash and Sophie's relationship as they helped each other while growing individually too. Also the spice in this one was 🔥🔥🔥
Anyway this was such a fun and steamy romance with realistic characters that I ended up loving and I think others would enjoy it too!❣️✨

I gave this book 3.5 stars but then rounded it down to 3 because rounding it up to 4 felt too much.

I enjoyed this book immensely until about the 65% – 70% mark. The two main characters were charming and engaging, I felt their spark and attraction to each other, and I had a great time seeing them interact. But then it started to kind of peter out for me. I still really like Sophie and Dash, but the situations surrounding them seemed… forced and too tropey. It was kind of a situation where some of the tropes were happening to them and it wasn’t organic.

I also wasn’t a fan of how some of the side characters were almost like caricatures of themselves. I just… couldn’t take them seriously as humans? The exes seemed stereotypical and some were just there purely for humor and window dressing. One was even there just to create a conflict between Sophie and another character that probably has never even met that ex! Just… odd.

My full review is over at my blog: monicareadsthrough.com.

This is a contemporary romance that leans on the “celebrities deserve private lives and happiness” trope; it is also the second in the author’s Hollywood series and, unless she’s been published under another name before, only her second book.

The story is narrated in third person, past tense, alternating in point of view between the two main characters: Dash, a thirty six year old former teen idol, scion of a film dynasty and recovering alcoholic; and Sophie, a romance author with writer’s block and a serious immaturity problem.

Beware: alcoholism; heart disease; explicit language; death of parents; strained family relationship; pansexual protagonist.

Note: Sophie is pansexual, one of her exes is non-binary, and another is the married straight son of two still-happily-married moms; which is to say, queer acceptance all over the place, and yay for that. Also, Sophie has a pacemaker.

However.

I have said recently that I have been struggling with contemporary romance, and this book is a perfect example of why: I gave up at 31% into the ARC.

Sophie gave up on an actual job because writing is the one and only thing that makes her happy–don’t ask me how she survived long enough to write, query, and sell her first book, which for many authors can take years; if it’s explained, it came after I quit reading. At any rate, with one book out, she has blown all deadlines to deliver the second to the publisher, and now has six weeks to either turn the finished manuscript in, or refund her advance–most of which she’s already spent.

Her reaction is to call her best friend and have a public drunken meltdown, wherein Sophie confesses that she “has never been in love”. But here’s the thing: apparently for Sophie, saying “I love you” to someone is the same as actually loving that person; conversely, if you don’t say those words, you never felt that emotion.

Very adult, much mature.

And guess what? All the people in her life–her older sister, her best friend, Dash–they all nod wisely as if it made sense.

But it gets better: Sophie’s solution to writer’s block and a short six weeks left to write a whole novel or be in serious legal and financial trouble, is to contact “all her exes” to figure out why she never told them “I love you”–and document that in her newly-created TikTok channel, because something something social media presence.

How this will actually get a book written is handwaved, because of course it is.

Meanwhile, we have Dash, who apparently lives off residuals or something, since it’s been quite a bit since his last acting job, but other than renting the ‘guest house’ in his property to Sophie, he doesn’t seem to ever worry about money. The emphasis with him is his struggle to remain sober, without more support than that of the AA sponsor that he met, by chance, at his local meeting.

Here’s my problem with Dash: despite being relatively close to his younger sister, and not being estranged from his parents or older brother, he will fake drinking alcohol at their Sunday family dinners rather than tell them he’s quit drinking, or why he resists their “well-meaning” (aka, super pushy) efforts to get him into a movie–any movie.

And Dash muses that not going back to acting is the only way to “save his life”, which would indicate that his alcoholism was a very serious problem until he finally quit, however long ago, and that no one in his family noticed it–which strains credulity.

To be fair, maybe it is revealed later in the book they are all aware of this and pretend not to know (in which case, offering him alcohol during Sunday dinners is cruel).

I got through Sophie meeting with two of her exes (neither of whom is the Carla of the blurb, by the by), where it becomes clear that she’s a people pleaser and that her relationships are extra shallow on both sides; but at the point where, because plot reasons, she and Dash have to share a bed, I realized I didn’t care.

I hope that Dash finds a way to tell his family about his alcoholism, and that they care enough about him to be supportive rather than the alternative, and I suppose that his HEA must include Sophie, but I just couldn’t keep reading. Having a woman in her thirties behaving like a twelve year old was more than I could take.

Plot Twist is a DNF for me.

I can never resist a friend with benefits situation where you know from the beginning there's going to be something more. This is one of my favorite romance tropes and Plot Twist does it so well. I knew I was going to love Dash, who wouldn't love someone who is on crafttok, loaded with family secrets, and trying to also focus on himself. Whereas Sophie is kind of a mess, we love her, but she's at a very low point in her life where she knows something has to change.

I enjoyed this book! I don't think the writing style is for me but I feel like it would be great for someone else!!